Vehicles having internal combustion engines, whether diesel or gasoline powered, emit exhaust gases. A number of devices may be used to treat the exhaust gases to produce CO2 and H2O and to remove particulates from the exhaust gas, and are after treatment of exhaust devices, although in common usage in the industry they are referred to as aftertreatment devices. Such devices include a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), a diesel particulate filter (DPF), a selective catalyst reduction (SCR) filter, a catalytic converter, and other devices used to treat exhaust gases and particulates contained therein, hereinafter referred to collectively as “aftertreatment devices,” referred to herein as ATDs.
Such after treatment devices may include a series of tubes having a honeycomb cross-section that is used to convert and collect the elements of the exhaust as soot or ash. Over time, the aftertreatment device accumulates the ash or soot and needs to be cleaned. Past methods of cleaning aftertreatment devices include submerging the device in a solvent and then forcing water through the honeycomb tubes to effect a cleaning operation. In addition, directing a flow of air through the honeycomb tubes has also been used in an effort to clean the aftertreatment device. Such methods have either one or more drawbacks such as being environmentally unfriendly in the case of using solvents, or having the soot and ash removed from the honeycomb tubes being blown around during the air blowing process.
Products have also been made to include a vacuum hose attached to an aftertreatment device cleaning tool that is clamped onto an end of a DOC during an air blowing process to contain the soot and ash removed from the DOC.
However, aftertreatment devices, including DOCs, come in a variety of sizes and shapes. As a result, aftertreatment device technicians are typically required to have a number of different sized cleaning tools to accommodate the various sized DOC products on the market, in order to clamp a particular cleaning tool onto a similarly sized end of the DOC.
As a result, it would be desirable to provide a cleaning tool for use on an aftertreatment device, such as a DOC, that can accommodate various sizes of the ends of a DOC or other aftertreatment device that does not require clamping of the cleaning tool to an end of the aftertreatment device, and that may be used on DOCs that have varying size and shaped ends. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a cleaning tool for use on an aftertreatment device that may accommodate a vacuum hose attached to either side of the cleaning tool.